EB-5 Minimum Investment 2027: $1.25 Million and $937,500

The inflation adjustment Congress wrote into the EB-5 program in 2022 takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. Applied to the latest federal price data, the formula points to a $1.25 million standard minimum and $937,500 for targeted areas.

The EB-5 minimum investment is set to change for the first time since Congress fixed it in 2022, and what a foreign investor must put into a U.S. project will turn on the date the petition is filed. Under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, the $1,050,000 standard amount and the $800,000 amount for targeted employment areas and infrastructure projects adjust automatically for petitions filed on or after Jan. 1, 2027. USCIS has not published the new figures, but the statute’s formula applied to Bureau of Labor Statistics data yields $1,250,000 and $937,500.

The filing date is what counts. The law applies the adjusted amounts to “petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment,” so an investor who files Form I-526 or Form I-526E by Dec. 31 is held to today’s thresholds. That leaves about ten weeks. A second deadline arrives first: USCIS fees for EB-5 petitions roughly double on Nov. 30, so investors who want to avoid both increases have about six weeks.

How the EB-5 Formula Lands on $1.25 Million

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, and every five years after, the standard amount moves with the cumulative change in the unadjusted Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) between Jan. 1, 2022, and the adjustment date, rounded down to the nearest $50,000. The targeted-area amount is no longer a separate number. It becomes 75 percent of the standard amount.

The CPI-U stood at 281.148 in January 2022 and at 336.940 in September 2026, the latest month BLS has released. That is a rise of about 19.8 percent. Applied to $1,050,000, it produces roughly $1,258,000, which rounds down to $1,250,000; 75 percent of that is $937,500. Starting from December 2021 instead gives the same rounded result.

EB-5 threshold	Petitions filed through Dec. 31, 2026	Projected for petitions filed from Jan. 1, 2027	Increase
Standard project	$1,050,000	$1,250,000	$200,000 (19.0%)
Targeted employment area or infrastructure	$800,000	$937,500	$137,500 (17.2%)

Current amounts: 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C) and the USCIS Policy Manual. Projections are calculations applying the statutory formula to BLS CPI-U data for January 2022 and September 2026. USCIS has not announced official figures.

The rounding rule gives that projection a wide cushion. For the standard amount to round to $1,200,000 instead, the index would have to fall below about 334.70, a drop of roughly 0.7 percent from September. Reaching $1,300,000 would take a climb above about 348.09, or about 3.3 percent in a few months. Neither fits recent trends: BLS reports the index rose 3.7 percent over the 12 months to September. The Economic Times, reporting on industry projections, put the likely range at $1.2 million to $1.25 million for standard projects and $900,000 to $937,500 for targeted ones.

The open question is method. The statute refers to the “cumulative annual percentage change” through “the date of adjustment,” and USCIS has not said which month’s index it will use or whether it will chain annual figures instead of comparing two monthly readings. Until it does, $1.25 million is the most likely outcome, not a settled one.

Chinese and Indian Investors Absorb the Biggest Shift

By statute, 32 percent of EB-5 visas are set aside: 20 percent for rural investments, 10 percent for high-unemployment areas and 2 percent for infrastructure. In the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, every set-aside category is current for all countries, while the unreserved category carries final action dates of Dec. 1, 2016, for applicants born in mainland China and Dec. 1, 2023, for India. For those investors a set-aside project is the faster route, so the jump from $800,000 to $937,500 lands on investors with the fewest alternatives, including Indian nationals who already face long waits in the employment-based categories.

The practical effect is a compressed filing season. Investors who have their source-of-funds documents ready have reason to file before Jan. 1, and those who file after it will pay more for a program whose clock is running: the statute makes regional center visas available only through Sept. 30, 2027. Unless Congress extends that authority, someone filing a Form I-526E in January commits $937,500 or more to a program with less than nine months of guaranteed life. The next scheduled adjustment would come on Jan. 1, 2032.

Dates Ahead

Nov. 30, 2026: Higher USCIS filing fees for EB-5 petitions take effect.
Dec. 31, 2026: Last day to file at the $1,050,000 and $800,000 thresholds.
Jan. 1, 2027: Adjusted minimums apply to new petitions; USCIS has yet to publish the figures.
Sept. 30, 2027: Statutory end date for regional center visas unless Congress acts.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds a LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Deigo and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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